Do Dark Days Lead to Dark Moods for You?

While many people get "the blahs" during the short, dark days of winter, people suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder, known as SADS, suffer to a greater degree. If you often feel chronically depressed and fatigued, want to sleep a great deal more, isolate yourself and crave sweet or starchy foods in a pattern that coincides with winters, you may have SADS. Some subgroups have symptom clusters with a few that are opposite the norm such as insomnia rather than excessive sleep. Some folks have a sub-clinical level of SAD, and remain functional but stuggle with symptoms.

Bright Light Therapy is one of the methods of treating these problems that is natual, effective and free of side effects. The Counseling and Student Development Center has a therapeutic light box that STUDENTS/HOUSE OFFICERS are elligible to come in to see or try out in our office. We can assist you in sorting out symptoms to see if this or other approaches would be most effective in helping you alleviate the dark moods that can come with dark days. You may contact Ronda Stevens, MSW, at 402-559-5553 or rstevens@unmc.edu, or the Counseling and Student Development Center at 402-559-7276 to arrange a visit to explore this.

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